third day i'm here, we decide to do the rug swap at ikea & grab a mirror, and to solve the problem with my hair appliances. we set off from the apartment around 11 or so, leaving plenty of time to be back for ben's 7pm "friendly" game. we head to ikea & manage to sort out the exchange without getting kicked out, ruining any setups, or really creating any scene what-so-ever. weird.
leaving there, we have a name for a shop that we've been told will have the "piece" i need to change the wattage on my hair straightener and blow dryer (mind you, we're expecting a small part about the size of the normal power adapter). we leave ikea, and have a pretty good idea of where to head in order to get to stefanie's, the electric store place, from a map we pulled up on google and took a photo of on the ipod. this photo-taking scheme is quickly becoming our version of a gps.
turns out, we don't have such a great idea of where to go. somehow, what looked like a straight route has lead us into a one-way system that is beyond complicated. the "straight" we were supposed to take is one that we cant enter, so we wind up on these twisty turny itty bitty little streets winding through (gorgeous) old buildings, shops, homes, etc. if not for the stress of having absolutely no clue where to go, it would have been an amazing area to trot through.
we have zero idea of where we are, a time schedule to return to for ben's game, and an area of nicosia where people don't speak english, which is VERY difficult to come by. i do realize that we should be making attempts at learning greek, but seriously, it's hard. add to that the fact that almost everyone speaks english, so there's really no need to learn, and that even if i were to try to speak to them in greek, they recognize that i can't and answer in english.
long story short, we return to the apartment about two hours later, who knows how, without my hair adaptor thingamabob.
the next day, we are determined: we. will. find. stefanies. we start out in what we think is the right direction, and pass a shop that looks like maybe they sell electrical stuff. why not stop in & check if they have it while we're at it, right? we stop, and they don't, but yet another man who looks absolutely miserable and mean turns out to be an amazing help. this guy literally sits at the desk and draws us a map from where we are to the store we're trying to get to, and verbally explains every turn. "you go to the church and you make a right. then two more lights and you make a right (as he draws us taking left).." ...you get the picture.
somehow, we made it. we get there, ask where to find the things we're looking for, and are pointed to the very, very back left corner where another guy takes us to the shelf. can i just say, this compleeetely threw me for a loop. what i was expecting to be a small plastic thingy that you plug into the outlet and connect the appliance to wound up to be about the equivalent of a small generator! to use to do my hair with! not to mention it's about 20 pounds (not even joking) and like 100 euros.... you've got to be kidding me. i'm not sure when my hair became such a big freaking deal, but honestly this has become such a to-do that i'm just over it. the guy recommends that we just buy a new straightener and hair dryer, and because that's obviously the better decision, after ALL that hunting and searching and getting lost, we just wind up doing what we could have soooo easily done in the first place. i wanted to cry.
end of story, i got what i needed, and i can now do my hair. we didn't even miss the sunset!
xox k
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